


A Conversation

by quicksparrows



Series: Side by Side – Chrobin [12]
Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-07
Updated: 2016-07-07
Packaged: 2018-07-22 04:23:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7419643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quicksparrows/pseuds/quicksparrows
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Maribelle, Sully and Ada welcome new recruit Olivia to eat lunch with them during the Shepherds training weekend. Topics of conversation include pregnancy, motherhood, how much this pie sucks and whether what goes up must come down. (Sorry, Olivia!)</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Conversation

**Author's Note:**

> This one loosely follows New Education :') I actually wrote some significant quantities of this while writing New Education, but cut it because I didn't feel like dragging it out any longer. Instead, it's been rewritten into its own thing! As such, reading New Education first is recommended, but not completely necessary.
> 
> I also blame watching way too much fucking Grey's Anatomy in the past month.
> 
> Also, uhhhhhhh warning for very frank talk about pregnancy and bodily functions, I guess?

.

 

 

                Pie de Pares. 

                Ada knows very well now that it's one of Frederick's favorites to make at military lunches, but it doesn't turn her stomach any less having already mentally prepared for it. Pork and veal boiled in broth and wine, fine. Pie crust, golden brown and flaky, fine. But currants? Minced dates? Months ago, Ada might have even relished the taste, but right now it just leaves her full of dread. Just the thought of her teeth ending up on a piece of ginger makes her want to hurl.

                She's sorely tempted to take it back to the front of the line and hand the tray back with a curt "Not today, Frederick!" but she also doesn't want to ask for special treatment.

                Ada sighs as she walks to the nearest open seat at the long tables, the dreadful pie steaming under her chin. She thinks she can smell the ginger, and it makes her queasy already.

                Pregnancy is not kind.

                The nearest open seat happens to be where Sully and Maribelle are, and Ada sits with them without a thought. Sully barely looks up from her own tray, but Maribelle looks up immediately.

                "Hello," Ada says.

                "Oh, my dear, I'm supposed to address _you_ first," Maribelle says, getting up to push out Ada's stool for her. She fusses like a mother.

 _Who cares?_ Ada thinks, but she'd rather talk about formalities and the proper forms of addressing nobility than focus on the damned pie, so she just says: "I'll keep that in mind next time I see you."

                "Look at you, trying to adapt to the rigors of royalty," Sully says.

                "Slowly but surely," Ada says.

                "I think it's lovely," Maribelle says. "Don't let Sully tease you. Once you're used to it all, you'll be so like a queen that no one will imagine you were ever anything but royalty."

                "Except the part where she was found in a field," Sully teases.

                "Shush!" Maribelle says.

                Ada chuckles, but then she sees Sully's eyes wandering off behind them, and a vague smile on her face, so she turns to look. There's a girl wandering back and forth down the aisle between the tables, apparently looking for a place to sit. She looks like she's going to cry.

                "Oh, it's that new girl," Maribelle says. "The dancer that Lord Basilio lent us in Plegia; I had heard she was coming from Ferox! When did she arrive?"

                "What was her name again?" Sully asks.

                "Olivia," Ada says. "She's been here for a month."

                "Well, don't just stare at her," Maribelle says. She stands up and waves a hand at Olivia, and she raises her voice to just barely below the "unladylike" threshold: "Olivia! Come here, girl."

                Olivia slowly turns to look at them, eyes widening.

                (Maribelle calls a lot of other women 'girl' and it ends up somewhat entertaining to Ada, who knows that Maribelle is scarcely older (If not actually younger) than most of them. Maribelle is, perhaps, the oldest soul in the army.)

                "Olivia, come sit with us," Maribelle says. "Yes, you! I am talking to you, dear!"

                Ada and Sully watch as Olivia nervously picks her way back towards them, hands trembling so much that Ada worries her cup might spill. She gets to their table's end and says, meekly: "It's alright if I sit with you?"

                "Of course," Ada says. "Come sit."

                She pats the space next to her, but Olivia just skitters a few feet further down the bench than necessary, perhaps to avoid imposing. Maribelle all but ignores this attempt at kindness in favour of waving Olivia to move in a little closer.

                "Darling, you sit in the middle so we can get to know you," she says. "I won't have you sitting on the end of the bench like a wallflower!"

                Ada and Sully both look to Olivia, who goes brilliantly red and mumbles something under her breath, but she slides back down as requested, settling herself between Ada and Maribelle with her hands wringing in her lap. Ada glances at the girl sidelong, looking for some sort of way to open a conversation without startling the girl out of her skin, but Olivia keeps her eyes low, her shoulders a little hunched. She's thoroughly fixated on her lunch.

 _Shame,_ Ada thinks, _that the_ one _person she knows from home would be a poor comfort to_ any _woman._

                "Thank you," Olivia says. "I wasn't sure if people had seats picked out..."

                "Uh, no... Do they do that in Ferox?" Sully asks.

                "Usually," Olivia says. "There's usually a brawl when someone sits in someone else's seat, and I didn't want to impose..."

                "Well, don't worry about that," Ada says. "You can sit wherever you'd like."

                "What brings you to this training weekend, Olivia?" Maribelle asks. "We didn't expect any of the foreign Shepherds to travel all this way for it."

                "Well, um," Olivia says. "Lord Basilio wanted sent me to Ylisse, and Sir Frederick said that it would be good for team building if I participated, so we decided I'd join in..."

                "These weekends are certainly good for socializing, if nothing else," Maribelle says. Sully snorts. Maribelle continues: "The training is something of a drag but we get plenty of time to chat and some of the games are tolerable."

                "You make it sound like torture," Sully says. "I WISH I could do everything on the schedule this weekend."

                Sully folds her arms against the edge of the table, and she leans against it with some difficulty -- the roundness of her belly has her sitting a little far back on the bench, and leaning is not so easy these days. She's due soon, but still won't miss a training weekend, even if she spends all of it on the sidelines.

                "I'm looking forward to it," Olivia says.

                "Who are you staying with?" Maribelle asks.

                "Um, I'm staying in the castle, actually."

                Maribelle turns to Ada immediately.

                "And you didn't tell me?"

                "Frederick handles that stuff," Ada admits. 

                "You have a guest from Ferox staying with you and you aren't playing the gracious hostess? Ada, you should be getting instruction on that from Frederick at the very least," Maribelle scolds. "I'm going to speak to him about that!"

                "It's fine," Ada says, waving a hand.

                "It is not fine," Maribelle insists. "This poor girl might have spent days wandering the castle, worried that she might interrupt or intrude on someone, without even knowing where her room is."

                "Maribelle, I don't think it's that dire," Ada sighs. She looks to Olivia, plainly. "You remember where your room is, right?"

                "Oh! Yes," Olivia says. "Sir Frederick unpacked my things and everything."

                "It's a non-issue, then," Ada says to Maribelle. And, back to Olivia: "I'm sorry I'm not on top of things right now –– I should have paid more attention."

                "It's okay," Olivia says. "You've been very busy and I don't think I'm very memorable either, so... it's okay."

                Ada looks at this young woman, who is by all counts a radiant creature with rosy cheeks and long, pastel curls. It's almost a paradox that she's so shy and awkward, considering she's sitting there in shining, translucent clothing and a plethora of gold jewelry. She's likely not even dressed to dance today and she looks like she was plucked straight out of a concubine's den. Not very memorable to who, exactly? _The blind?_

                "Oh, trust me, I remember you," Ada says. After all, she could never forget snickering at the way Chrom's eyes had practically bulged out of his head seeing her. Just this morning, even. Girls don't dress like that in Ylisse! "Either way, if that's how it is, I'll make sure you're well taken care of. Spoiled, even, to make up for it."

                "You don't need to go to that trouble," Olivia says, blushing deeply.

                "Oh, knock it off, both of you," Sully says. "Olivia, no one's going to forget you, and you shouldn't let them. Ada, stop apologizing for being busy with a million other things."

                "She traveled all the way from Ferox and is staying in my castle and I didn't even know it," Ada says, pointedly.

                "You know, that's the first time I've heard you refer to it as _your_ castle," Maribelle says. "That's a step in the right direction."

                Ada looks at Maribelle's satisfied smile and decides to count it as a win, too. The castle _is_ starting to feel like home.

                "I don't know," Sully says, "maybe it's a pregnancy brain thing. You just forgot, it happens."

                "Maybe," Ada says. "It's not a very comforting excuse, though."

                "Oh, are you pregnant?" Olivia asks, and suddenly she seems terribly curious. She leans in a little, as if Ada's coat could obscure her body any less up close. "That's so nice! I love kids..."

                "Do you have any kids, Olivia?" Sully asks.

                Olivia looks up, very suddenly, indeed startled, though maybe not out of her skin. She looks at Sully dubiously, almost as if she hadn't heard properly, and then she looks at Ada and then Maribelle as if they might have an answer for her. Maribelle raises an eyebrow. Ada thinks: _What on earth is going through her head?_

                She says, finally: "Oh, no. No. I don't have kids." She pauses. "I'd probably have to quit the army, I wouldn't be able to dance..."

                "Won't give up your body, huh?" Sully says. Ada knows this response is trouble: Sully can be dry and sarcastic, and she's already seeing Olivia's face twist into concern. 

                "What a terrible thing to say," Maribelle says, and Ada watches Olivia flush redder and get flustered.

                "Oh, I didn't– I didn't mean," Olivia says quickly, looking between Maribelle and Sully, but apparently she fears Sully's wrath more. Ada isn't sure that she would have made the same bet, but it's not her bet to make. "I don't want to make you think it's because I'm selfish––"

                Ada watches Maribelle's eyebrows fly up, and then Sully's. 

                "I think she meant what _Sully_ said was terrible," Ada says to Olivia.

                "Oh!" Olivia seems relieved. "Well, I would love to have kids someday, but I don't even have a boyfriend, and um, I might not make a good mother anyway... not everyone does, I don't think." She looks to Sully again. "If you didn't want to be a mother, um... that's just fine! It wouldn't be selfish to keep your body."

                "I don't want to be a mother?" Sully interjects. She laughs loudly, and she gestures at her belly. 

                Olivia practically shivers.

                "I didn't mean that, I just-- oh I'm so sorry, I forgot, I didn't realize you were– I thought you were just––"

                Olivia cuts herself off, and Ada is almost positive it is because Maribelle has thumped her under the table. To their fortune, Sully just laughs.

                "Don't worry about it, I know I look like a cow," she says. She reaches across the table to lay her hand as near as Olivia as she can get, but she doesn't get far. Probably for the best, as Olivia looks desperate to turn invisible. Olivia mumbles something under her breath, and Maribelle gives Ada an intensely pitying look.

                "Let's not tease," Ada says.

                "Good idea," Maribelle says. "Olivia, darling, tell us about your travels. I've never been to Ferox, and I love a good story."

                No response. Olivia is staring into her pie, face flushed and eyes watering. Ada's smiles tightly and she looks between her friends. Maybe they should have left Olivia to pluck up courage and find another seat, ideally with people who aren't so intense. Maybe Ricken and Donnel would have taken pity and been kinder. Maybe Olivia could have fluttered down the aisle until Frederick was finished commanding service, and then he would have taken care of her. Someone. _Anyone_ but them.

                Ada pushes her tray away from her slightly, so it isn't wafting right under her nose. Ugh.

                "Who's this?" Vaike asks, as he passes by. He's got three pies on his tray, stacked in a little pyramid, and he leans over Sully's back to peer at Olivia. Olivia keeps her head down. "Oh, that cute dancer is here?"

                "Please go away," Maribelle says, curtly.

                "Yeesh," Vaike says. "I didn't get to meet her!"

                "She's not feeling very social," Ada says.

                "Alright, alright. Hope you feel better soon, Weepy," Vaike says, and off he goes.

                Another beat of silence passes. 

                "While we're on the subject of motherhood," Ada says. "This morning I was talking with Miriel and she said she knew she was pregnant immediately. She said she just knew that something in her body changed but that modern understanding of conception didn't explain what she felt. Did she ask you about that?"

                "No," Sully laughs. "But I sure as hell didn't have some magical moment post-coitus where I felt changed."

                "I didn't either," Ada says. "It took me a few months."

                "I realized earlier but that's only because it interrupted my schedule," Sully says.

                "I wish there were some older women in the Shepherds who have kids," Ada says. "All that am-I, am-I-not confusion was so annoying, and all the midwives and whatnot are a fair bit older... experienced, but not exactly people to bond with."

                "Miriel never shutting up about her pregnancy wasn't enough for you?" Sully asks.

                "Helpful but a little impersonal," Ada admits.

                "Man," Sully says. "If I had known pregnancy was going to be like this, I would have tried to pick a better time to be pregnant. Maybe in a few years."

                "You'll be older then, though," Maribelle says. "Young women bear stronger children."

                Sully scoffs.

                "Any kid of mine will be strong regardless," she says. "He or she has warriors for parents."

                "You know, I just wish it was an exact science," Ada says. "Some people try forever to get pregnant, others just slip up once and they're expecting."

                Maribelle gives them a dubious look.

                "Well, isn't it easy?"

                Ada, Sully and Olivia all look her way.

                "If you're doing it all the time, maybe," Sully says. She smirks at Ada and adds: "Is that where we went wrong?"

                "I should have gotten creative with Chrom earlier," Ada remarks.

                "Not that," Maribelle says with a huff. "I mean isn't it simple to create ideal circumstances for conception?"

                "Look, I know you're still looking for that magical man who will make you a baby and then bugger off," Sully says, "but you're probably going to have to sleep with the guy _more than once_ when you do find him. It does take _actual effort_."

                "Chrom and I have been doing things irresponsibly since before the wedding," Ada remarks. "Still took a year."

                "Perhaps both of you are just ill-informed, or too hasty," Maribelle suggests. "You have to lay on your back for a few minutes after to really make sure _it_ gets up there and _stays_ there."

                There's a beat of silence. 

                "Well, maybe that would increase the odds, but it _still_ comes out," Ada says.

                "Not if you've done it correctly," Maribelle says.

                Sully laughs, long and hard.

                "Maribelle," she says. "Have you ever actually had a guy do his business in you?"

                Maribelle flushes bright red.

                "What a crude question to ask at the lunch table!" she says.

                " _Now_ it's crude?" Ada asks. She gestures at Olivia. "We've gone from harassing this one to semen to this, and now it's crude?"

                "I _won't_ do myself the indignity of answering such a thing," Maribelle huffs.

                Sully places a hand alongside her mouth and says to Ada and Olivia, none-too-subtly and none-too-quietly: "Virgin."

                Maribelle huffs.

                "Moving along... I'm going to have to agree with Sully on this one, you just don't know how it works," Ada says. "I don't know how long it has to be there to be effective, but the rest _is_ going to come out. That's just gravity. It's how it works."

                Maribelle's interest is piqued, even if she's not ready to admit defeat.

                "But surely it gets absorbed _eventually_ ," she says. "And that would increase the odds, certainly?"

                Ada glances at Sully and chuckles.

                "I guess eventually, but who has time to lay there for hours and hours to find out?"

                "It's like when you're bleeding," Sully replies. "It'll still leak."

                "What if I laid there with pillows under my hips for hours? A day, if necessary?" Maribelle asks. "That could be fairly foolproof, I think. What about then?"

                "Doubt it," Ada says.

                "Ugh! So you just accept defeat and stand up and wait for it to..."

                "Drip down your leg?" Ada replies.

                "Pretty much," Sully says.

                "That's revolting," Maribelle says.

                "Exactly. That's why I put my foot down about that," Ada says. "I sat through war meetings after quickies _twice_ and it was awful, so I said never again."

                Looking like she'd thoroughly like the chance to change the subject, Maribelle says: "How _are_ things these days, since our little talk?"

                "What little talk?" Sully asks.

                "Ada came to my office for tea the other week," Maribelle says, "to discuss some sensitive matters."

                "So you took sex advice from a virgin instead of coming to me," Sully says.

                "Apparently," Ada says.

                "Well, tell us how things are with Chrom," Maribelle says, pointedly.

                Ada pauses. She's always been content to sit and listen to girlfriends talk about their lovers and partners and occasionally chip in a detail or two herself, but now she's set a precedent. Apparently, once you talk to a girlfriend about potentially pegging your husband, anything can be laid on the table.

                "Good," she says. "Very... busy."

                Sully chuckles, spearing her pie with the fork and dragging it around in pieces, picking out the best little chunks of meat. She shakes her head as she talks. "Remember how horny you are now and how much action you're getting, because it's not going to be so fun when you're literally a whale. Stahl hasn't gotten laid since it got _weird_."

                "Does Chrom like the slipper?" Maribelle asks, pointedly ignoring Sully.

                "He would be embarrassed if he knew we were even talking about this again," Ada replies. "But yes. He likes the slipper."

                "Slipper?" Olivia says in a tiny voice, confused.

                "Ada gives it to him," Sully says, slyly.

                "Huh?" Olivia says.

                "Stop teasing her," Maribelle scolds, and she rounds on Olivia in a fond, almost eager voice: "Darling, do I have to have a talk with you too?"

                "About slippers?" Olivia says.

                "Here we go," Ada says.

                "You can talk to her about that later," Sully announces. "You, just tell us how things are with Chrom. I need to live vicariously through you until this little shit vacates my womb and I can get back to my old body."

                "He's great," Ada says.

                "That's _it?_ "

                "Okay," Ada says. She leans against the table. "We _did it_ this morning. It was great normal-people sex, as if I wasn't even pregnant. Nothing exciting, because we knew he had a whole day of training ahead, but at least we got off. If he's not exhausted by the end of the weekend, I think I'm going to rail him again."

                "Awesome," Sully says. "We're all going to be beat, though."

                "Probably," Ada agrees. "But that said, I think the excitement of changing things up is already wearing off, and it's his turn to figure out our next escapade. Problem is he hasn't done anything to set it up, and I don't feel like orchestrating another sex toy hunt."

                "Poor dear," Maribelle says. "I dare not speak ill of nobility but the truth is they can be somewhat spoiled. Especially the men."

                "Virion," Sully says, pointedly.

                "Do not speak of that cad to me," Maribelle says. "How is Chrom failing you, Ada?"

                Ada shrugs.

                "He's not failing me," she says. "It's just that he can get so distracted. I'll practically be halfway down his body and he'll be yapping about something stupid, something he heard that day or whatever, and I'll go 'hey, do you want this or not, because I could be doing something else' and then he'll snap to attention. It's just annoying that I need to tell him in the first place."

                "Normally I'd scoff and say that's why I don't bother with men, but are you _sure_ it's not the pregnancy?" Maribelle says. "Some men..."

                "Maribelle, no," Sully says. "If we're going to talk about sex and pregnancy, I'm not going to hear tips from you."

                "Well, fine, then!" Maribelle huffs. "It was just a suggestion."

                "I don't think it's the pregnancy," Ada says. "He's just lazy sometimes."

                "Speaking of pregnancy, I still want to complain," Sully says. "How fucking terrible is this pie?"

                "What's wrong with it?" Maribelle asks.

                "It smells, that's what's wrong with it," Sully says.

                "Agreed," Ada says. "It's putting me off."

                "I'm going to hurl," Sully says.

                "Please don't," Maribelle says.

                "See, that's another thing about pregnancy," Ada says. "Almost anything can do that. I can't even look at some of my favourite foods, and whatever Frederick had made for dinner the other day didn't agree with me at all –– just the _smell_ was enough to set me off."

                "Did you tell him not to make that anymore?"

                "Obviously," Ada says. "He dutifully paid the price for it, though. He spent an hour holding my hair back while I vomited."

                "Why didn't _Chrom_ hold your hair back?"

                "Because Frederick _insisted_ ," she says. "You know, he's actually great these days; he even seems kind of happy about the whole thing. Absolutely thrilled to have me waking him up at three in the morning asking for something."

                It had crossed her mind more than once that Frederick is like some sad, burly puppy dog, deprived of meaning without people to fuss over, and that she, the brand new pregnant lady of the royal family, is some sort of holy grail to him. The ultimate in service opportunities! Ada's almost surprised he isn't hovering over her right now, endlessly quizzing her on food options, but he's busy with the goings-on of the training weekend.

                "Hard to imagine you being so demanding of service," Maribelle says. "You!"

                Ada shrugs.

                "Like Sully said," Ada replies. "Pregnancy makes you crazy. Can't-sleep-without-a-very-specific-snack crazy, and when you mix that with Frederick, things get weird. He didn't _just_ get me buttermilk the other night, he actually brought the churn up to the room and made it _on the spot_ and everything. He churned it for twenty goddamn minutes. Chrom slept through the whole thing. I felt like a lunatic but I loved it. I didn't even care."

                "I suppose some women handle pregnancy than others," Maribelle says, in this gracious, almost pitying tone.

                Sully snickers.

                "Hey Ada," Sully says. "She still thinks _she_ won't be puking at all hours and bursting into tears because of stupid little things."

                "Just wait until the greasy hair and breakouts happen," Ada replies, somewhat soberly. "She'll be alright with the mood swings then."

                "Or the breast thing," Sully said. "Just touch them and... boom."

                She makes a gesture like a fountain. Maribelle's feathers seem ruffled, but she refuses to take the bait.

                "And how is Chrom actually coping with this, beyond getting _lazy_?" Maribelle asks.

                "Who cares?" Sully replies.

                "He's fine," Ada replies, amused. "Maybe a little exasperated and sometimes on eggshells, but he's really sweet about it."

                "Exasperated? That's awful –– you're carrying his child, he oughtn't complain for even an instant."

                Ada snorts.

                "I'm the one complaining about him, mostly, so he's within his rights," she says. "I like our little arguments, normally –– it keeps us grounded –– but my patience is a little short these days and he wears his heart on his sleeve all the time so I know when I'm treading on his toes."

                "What do you mean?"

                "He has annoying habits, like leaving things on the floor where I can trip on them, or sneaking up on me to be funny. It's not funny after the fifth time, especially not when I'm still trying to work as long as I can. He eggs Frederick on about putting me on bedrest and that is definitely not funny. I wish I could _be_ fun about those things more, but––" Ada gestures at herself, loosely. "Do I look like I'm a fun person to be around?"

                "You've never been fun," Sully remarks slyly, which pries another snort out of Ada.

                "Well, I'm _less_ fun now," she says.

                "So you don't let Chrom get away with shit like you usually do," Sully suggests. "Big deal."

                "I'm right to," Ada says. "Sometimes he acts like he's more interested in having the baby than what I'm going through to actually _make_ the baby. I don't expect him to understand, but I would like it if he was just a bit more sensitive, and not in the gushy way."

                "That's fair," Sully says. She pauses to munch on a forkful of food, chewing slowly, like it's a chore. "I think my man read more books than I did, though. Talked to more midwives."

                "You were too busy doing push-ups," Maribelle says.

                "Exactly. He can handle that stuff while I plan how I'm going to lose this baby weight as efficiently as possible."

                There's a lull, and Olivia makes a little sound as she opens her mouth to add something, but nothing comes out. Ada watches her push her food around her plate for a moment, but Olivia doesn't meet her eyes.

                "Do you feel like you're maybe losing brain cells?" Sully asks. "I feel like I don't remember shit anymore. It was the worst at the halfway point."

                "I _have_ read that a pregnant woman's mind changes due to the baby," Maribelle says.

                "That, I'd believe," Sully says. 

                "I don't think it's actually changing," Ada says. "I think it's that we're rearranging our lives for something entirely new, a _baby_ , and it takes up so much mental acuity a lot of other things fall by the wayside, that's all."

                "Do you tell yourself that _every_ time you find yourself trying to remember the most basic shit? What you did yesterday? "

                Ada laughs.

                "Well, I'm used to the memory loss," she says. "I'm just not used to spacing on appointments and meetings and all those things..."

                "Fair enough," Sully says. "The other day I couldn't remember the name for feathers and I just kept getting angrier and angrier when I couldn't remember what they were called."

"What on earth?" Maribelle says.

                " _Bird leaves_ ," Sully says. "I kept repeating 'bird leaves' until Stahl figured out what the fuck I was saying, it was so stupid. I was ready to choke him but fortunately he got it."

                Olivia's eyes widen a little. She could be confused, but mostly she looks frightened.

                "Well, you were never an intellectual," Maribelle offers; this could be callous to Olivia, Ada supposes, but it's quite friendly and teasing. Sully just snorts.

                "You'll find out for yourself," she says, darkly. "You will."

                "Maybe Maribelle will surprise us and get through it unscathed," Ada suggests. "Nothing different but how tightly she laces her bodice."

                "Nonsense," Maribelle says. "I won't wear a corset at all when I'm pregnant, if it is better for my precious baby."

                "You're going to cry when you gain a pound," Sully says. "Big, ugly tears."

                "I will not," she says.

                Sully stares down Maribelle with a grimly eager look.

                "You're still super excited to have kids someday, though, right? Pregnancy and everything?" Sully asks.

                "Yes," Maribelle repeats. She frowns. "Why?"

                "I just want you to know, as a friend, that you're going to hate it."

                " _Why?_ "

                "There is _absolutely nothing_ dignified about it, no matter what they say," Sully says. "Assume that everything you've been told is a whitewashed lie. What we've already said today doesn't even scratch the surface of how it feels."

                Maribelle scoffs.

                "You assume I haven't done my research," she says. "And not all women react the same, after all. Look at Ada, compared to you!"

                Ada just looks up from her plate with a tense smile.

                "I'm only––" Ada starts.

                "Ada's not even into the worst of it!" Sully interrupts. "She can still see her feet. But when you start getting big? Oh, man. Pregnancy fucks with you. It's a goddamn shit show."

                "It's true that everyone _is_ different though," Ada replies.

                "Difference is not what I'm even talking about," Sully says, a bit louder. "I'm saying that there's tons of shit no one tells you because if you knew it, you'd never, ever get pregnant in your life. Ever. If someone had told me, I wouldn't have."

                Maribelle pauses. Ada watches the curiosity burgeon on her face.

                "Such as?"

                Sully slams a hand on the table, the cutlery jumping all together with a dull clatter.

                "You shit when you give birth. Virtually all women do."

                Maribelle makes a strangled noise of disgust. 

                "Nonsense!" she says. "Utter nonsense!"

                "You DO," Sully says. "Miriel did!"

                "How do you even know that?" Maribelle demands.

                "She told me!"

                "Maybe it's a matter of strength," Maribelle says. "Perhaps Miriel has been neglecting her exercises and is all..." She waves a white-gloved hand, dismissively. "Loose."

                "Any other situation, if you suggested I could avoid something with sheer _strength_? I'd be fucking thrilled. But no. It's virtually every woman."

                "Well, just Miriel isn't enough to prove it," Maribelle. "It would have to be most of the women in this company. That's just... the law of averages or something. It needs to be provable in numbers."

                Both women look at Ada. Ada shakes her head immediately.

                "Not a chance," she says. "If that's true, that is so not leaving the room when I give birth. Not a chance."

                "Come on," Sully says. "We're preparing Maribelle."

                "No," Ada repeats.

                "I'll tell if you tell," Sully says.

                "Don't tell her," Maribelle says.

                "I'm not going to," Ada asks.

                "Well, you'll know," Sully says. "Whether you share with us or not, you'll know the truth, and you'll have to live with having shit the bed."

                Olivia sits up a little straighter and puts her hands on either side of her lunch tray, but she doesn't pick it up yet, seemingly too frozen to move much further than that yet. She's so quiet that for a moment Ada had almost forgotten her presence, but with Olivia flushed red right up to her roots, she's a little hard to ignore.

                "Well, it was nice to meet you all," she says, "but I think I need to, um... well, there's something I need to do, so I'll be going now."

                "You haven't even touched your lunch," Sully says.

                "Oh!" Olivia looks down at it, and the disappointment in her face is evident. "I'm not hungry..."

                "Oh, look what you did," Ada says, to Sully and Maribelle both. "You put her off her lunch."

                "You did too!" Sully retorts. "Miss Leg Drips!"

                Ada laughs and gestures at Olivia.

                "Well, she's new and now she's going to think we're insane."

                Olivia hovers over Maribelle, waiting for her to move her chair, and Maribelle does eventually.

                "It's okay, I don't think you're insane," Olivia says, beet red, and off she bolts, jingling all the way. Ada feels a lot of heads turn at the sound. (Not memorable –– yeah, _right_.) But Olivia doesn't put her tray down at the end of the table for washing –– she just keeps walking until she's out of the tent, and Ada, Sully and Maribelle watch her continue across the field, lunch in-hand. All three of them are silent for a moment.

                "Is she going to _stop_ somewhere?" Sully asks.

                "She's still going!" Maribelle says. "Oh, we're terrible!"

                And then they all burst out laughing.


End file.
